"For several years, Detelina Ivanova had been eyeing a rundown house that was for sale on an overgrown, one-acre lot in Vienna, Va. Just 1,200 square feet, the 1950s two-bedroom house with one story and a basement had been vacant for 10 years, sinking into deeper disrepair even as larger new houses were replacing other vintage houses in the neighborhood. The house itself was not worth repairing, but Ivanova and her husband saw opportunity in the lot. Large and well-located, it was the ideal site for a large new custom home. As soon as the price dropped, Ivanova bought it in April 2015.

She chose Stahl Homes in Vienna to design and build a 7,000-square-foot, Craftsman-style custom house on the property. Of course, to prepare the site for the new house, Ivanova had to clear away the old one. Stahl suggested a way to accomplish that while potentially netting a substantial tax break for the family.

​Called deconstruction, it entails taking a house apart, piece by piece, down to the foundation. The majority of what is removed from a house via deconstruction can be recycled or reused. Everything removed from the house and donated to a qualified 501(c)3 charity can be claimed by the property owners on their taxes as a donation at fair market value."

We started WasteNot after working in real estate development and construction for many years. The task of throwing away perfectly good building materials because they don't fit into the new scheme or style was taking its toll. In a much broader view, the homescape around us was being demolished - one by one, to support the energy efficient, hurricane resistant homes that addressed the needs of the changing demographic. Now, we realized, that whole houses of kitchens, fixtures, landscape plantings, wood floors, windows and doors were being trashed to make way for new construction.

This was the tipping point for us. Instead of resisting the new wave of development around us, we decided to offer an alternative to people who wanted to move on from quaint beach cottages to sound homes that fit the economical needs and lifestyle of the areas new buyers.

WasteNot was born to mindfully repurpose the usable building materials that were no longer wanted. Saving demolition costs, dump fees and providing the secondary market with useable materials just made sense.